Life & Style

Black Travel Bloggers Say: Don’t Be Afraid to Get Away

Renee King didn’t start travel blogging until late in life. The 52-year-old administrative assistant says she was tired of her friend’s excuses about why they didn’t travel and decided to show them how through writing.

“I kept hearing so many of my black friends exclaim that they couldn’t afford it, they were convinced that it was beyond their means,” she says. “I think we need to get out of the mindset that travel is meant for others,” she argues. “We have to claim this world as our own and know that we have the god-given right to travel wherever our hearts lead us – we need to stop putting limits on ourselves.”

So with a little sacrifice and technological savvy—King provides a window to the world through her blog, A View to a Thrill. She’s shared a few resources she uses via Twitter.

1. Go-Today.com
King recommends using this feed to find package deals to Europe at a moment’s notice.

2. Rail Europe
King uses Rail Europe to get from country to country while in Europe. By following them on Twitter, she can access deals easily from anywhere. It’s also helpful because followers can direct message the business with questions and get an answer back fairly quickly.

3. Other Black Travel Bloggers
Like her fellow blogger, Kiratiana Freelon, King also advises following other black people who travel to get an idea of what it’s like through the eyes of another person of color. “They share first person accounts of their adventures,” she says of other bloggers. “I think a lot of the time people just need to be assured of the possibility.”